Crossing Barriers
by The Jade Knight
Summary: What does it mean to see more then anyone else in the world? Or to be the descendant of a mighty swordsmen? What does it mean to be a friend? Or family? Power sleeps in us all, but it is the people important to us that draw it out.
1. One Little Report

Like many authors on this site, I usually write two or more pieces at once. This is one of those times.

**Declaration of intent**:

**One**,** _NARUTO DOES NOT HAVE A DOJUTSU! _** you'll see why i yelled that later. He will never get one, he has something better. that being said he will have a bloodline of sorts, not an eye one, or that bone one or ice... its something... not new, but a new twist. you'll soon find out twists are my thing.

**Two**, Since this is a Naruto universe story, he is a main character, but he is not the only character we will be following.

**Three**, This is a powerful Naruto story, but he will not be a god, and there will be dozens if not hundreds of characters that can out muscle him. That being said, he will not leave the others behind; they will also become incredibly powerful.

**Four**, there will be a pairing for most of the characters, but it will develop slower for some. That being said, pretty much all of the pairings are decided, but they are not in stone. Some may even be very unexpected.

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_Please note that when i say the characters are Naruto and Sakura i do not mean that they are going to be romantically involved. I simply mean that she is very important to the story, at least in the version i have in my head right now._

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**Pronunciations:**

As i go along i may invent or use words that will look a little odd, i will put the pronunciations here.

The pronunciation of Naginata is; Naw – gee – nata (as in Hinata)... I think... at least thats how I say it.

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Okay, lets get this going.

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**Crossing Barriers**

By: The Jade Knight

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**Chapter 1: One Little Report**

Eight years after the Kyuubi attack:

There is a building tucked away in the Village Hidden in the Leaves; a building that no one ever wants to be committed to. It is a long, low building made of simple cinder blocks and painted a soothing cream colour that looks horrible in the morning sun. All of the windows are barred and all of the doors are locked. This building is called the Ackerman Asylum, and it is here that nearly a hundred people who cannot deal with everyday situations live. Some of them just do not understand how things are supposed to work, while others suffer from extreme phobias or have fallen so far into their schizophrenia there is not much left that can be done for them.

There is an entire wing devoted to helping those who suffer from one specific event. Some of them are trapped in their memories, reliving that damned night over and over again. Others still believe that the demon is at the walls, and unless they fight everyone who comes near them, they will die. Still others are shaking in the dark corners of their rooms, never moving or making a sound for fear that the demon will hear them and come back.

The death toll of that day was well over four thousand, almost a fifth of the population of Konoha. Everyone, from the Hokage himself to the drifter on the street to the rich man sitting behind his walled estate lost someone. All of that loss, hate and blood stained the lives and souls of those it touched. Some were driven mad and had to be confined in Ackerman Asylum, others misplaced blame, and a few managed to move past it all.

All that damage done in one single day. A span of twenty four hours altered the lives of everyone. But what if there was one who could not forget? Who remembered every blow the demon struck? Who once hid in the darkened allies of his own mind lest he witness every death in all their gory detail. Every night he would see and hear and feel that damned night just as it happened. He always used to run from the demon fox as the screams filled the cold night air, trying to find somewhere to hide until the morning came. But he had grown tired of running and crying years ago.

Now he accepted his nightmares, and tried to better them. He wasn't strong enough to fight the fox itself yet, so he did what he could. Dragging the wounded from the battle field, helping the field medics with bandages, holding the hands of the dying. All the while knowing that none of it would matter in the morning. Tomorrow when the nightmares started again all those that he saved would start the fight anew, and all those that had died the night before would be with them. But each night it was more real then anything.

The screams were real; the blood was real; the fox was real, and he knew that if it ever managed to reach the Hokage tower something bad would happen. Years ago when he was small, so was the fox – it seemed to grow with him. He knew the day would come when the fox was big enough to push its way further into the village and past the yellow haired man that always stopped him before. And when that time came it would be up to him to keep it from reaching the Hokage tower that looked so different from the one in the real world – with all of the seals glowing on its walls.

The fox took another life just as a small body was sweating and straining, trying to pull a bleeding Shinobi away from the fighting.

The fox took another life.

The blond boy pulled harder.

And in a dark room, Uzumaki Naruto was having another nightmare.

Would he break like so many before him? Or grow stronger and overcome?

-

"Today is the last day you can turn in your report on Bloodlines for full marks. Starting tomorrow every late report I receive I am automatically deducting ten percent from your score, and I will increase by ten percent everyday for the rest of the week," Iruka said, just as the end of day bell rang. He doubted many of them heard him as they all made a mad rush for the door, or just leapt out the windows. He stood in front of his desk and took the couple reports pushed into his hands, as their owners went to more interesting places. The sound of the bell faded into an empty class room, and Iruka had to smile. He probably could have scraped a Jonin position if he really tried, but he could never give up his appointment at the school. Oh, he still did the odd mission here and there when the Hokage asked him to, but his place was here.

He put the small stack of reports on his desk and went to go get a cup of tea from the Sensei's lounge. He took a sip of the soothing liquid and sighed. There was nothing like a cup of herbal tea after a good day of shaping minds. It would be better if he could get Shikamaru to pay more attention in class, but one couldn't have everything in life.

Nearly an hour later he was reading over the last report. It was in a bright orange folder and he barely had to glance at the title to know who's it was. He drained the last of his tea and turned the page, as a frown marred his face.

"Oh, Naruto," he sighed sadly, "it's good to have such a wide imagination, but this was a serious project." Well, even thought he picked the most common Bloodline to report on and did the Sharingan, he did put a lot of effort into it. He had quite a few illustrations depicting his outlandish ideas and he had five pages more then anyone else. Iruka was just thinking that he could probably justify giving Naruto a make-up report with the effort he put in when he suddenly jumped.

There was a man reading over his shoulder!

Iruka Umino bolted from his chair and had a kunai in his hand before his feet hit the ground. "Who are you!" he demanded at the man, getting a good look at the stranger for the first time. He was dressed in Anbu wear with his back vest customized to hold about a dozen more scrolls then normal. In his hand was a mask from the 'Legacy' unit; a pale, almost featureless face, save for the deep black outlines around the eyes. The unit assigned to protect the legacy of the Fourth. Iruka relaxed a little seeing the mask, and put the kunai away once he recognized the face of Hedvige Uchiha, one of the men he knew that was assigned to guard Naruto when he was at the academy.

"Zeus," Iruka sighed chuckling," you scared me doing that."

"Where did you get this?" Hedvige demanded bluntly, causing Iruka to tense again. While some of the Uchiha seemed to think they were something special or superior, the man nicknamed Zeus had always seemed like one of the more level headed ones.

"Get what?"

"This!" he shouted, holding up the orange folder. "What are you doing with a rank 8 classified leaf secret on your desk."

"What?" Iruka asked again. A rank _8,_ as in punishable by life imprisonment or execution! The only things that got a rank 8 classification were things that could be used to seriously weaken the whole village, or completely wipe out a section of it. Hell, the fate of the _Kyuubi_ was ranked an 8. But Hedvige was just holding a school report! There was no way Naruto could have run across anything like... that...

"Oh boy," Iruka mumbled, unable to stop running over everything he just read. If it was true, and the Uchiha in front of him should be a good authority on that, how did Naruto find out? And why did he put it in a school report!

"Iruka Umino, you will accompany me to the Hokage tower where we will straighten this all out. If you do not comply I will be well within my rights to use extreme force," Hedvige said calmly, his hand hovering over on of the many scrolls on his vest. Iruka immediately raised his hands and nodded. Hedvige Uchiha was a brilliant seal master, quite possibly the best in the village with Jiraiya wandering and the Fourth's sacrifice.

Iruka had heard that Hedvige had once summoned a bolt of lightning, complete with hurricane force winds, rain and thunder to drop an assassin trying to kill Naruto. When Iruka asked him about it later he had said that he sealed a sliver of the rage of a hurricane into one of his scrolls many years ago, and could call upon it with ease.

He could literally smite someone with a _real_ bolt of lightning, not using some great jutsu that ate huge amounts of chakra; by just releasing a seal, barely any chakra involved. And that was just one of the dozens of scrolls he kept on him at all times, not counting the hundred or more he also had stashed at his house. He was not someone to be messed with.

"No problem," Iruka said shakily.

-

Hinata knelt in front of a single burning candle. It's bright flickering flame the only light casting shadows in her room. Her father was very disappointed with her progress with the Juuken, and in times like this, only progress in her ... _other_ talents could make him smile at her again. So now, here she sat, staring hard into a single point of fire. Watching it as it seemed to dance with her; singing to her. It flickered merrily, reflecting in her kind eyes.

She slowly reached out both of her hands, as if to embrace her mother. Her fingers hovering on either side of the flame, close enough to burn her fingertips, but for some reason she was unscathed. She had been practicing this for many months now, going from one step to the next, with only vague help from her instructors who knew nothing about what she could do. She was special, her father told her this many times, much more special then anyone else in the village. But she was also becoming a failure. If she ever wanted to be useful to the Hyuuga clan she would have to learn how to use her power.

She let her fingers touch the flame, entering it to its blue-gold core. She did not gasp or cry because she felt no pain. The fire flitted happily between her fingers, tickling her a little, until all ten of her fingers had a tiny flame at it's tip.

She smiled, holding her flaming hands up.

Her father would be proud.

-

Anbu Captain Kakashi, leader of Legacy squad stood in the Hokage's office. This was not a new occurrence, but the papers he held in his hand were. He knew Naruto was a special kid, and not only because of who his father was. Sometimes he seemed to know things that he shouldn't, or could do things that would seem impossible; but he was suddenly struck with the feeling that he hadn't even begun to realize what Naruto could become.

"I did let him take a look at my Sharingan, but it was only for five – ten seconds tops."

"Did you think he might be able to do something like this?" Sarutobi asked seriously.

"I thought he was going to draw a picture of it!" replied Kakashi, his voice straining. He looked back down at the report Naruto had turned in once more, still not believing what he was reading.

'_The Sharingan is actually a four part eye made of additional tenketsus and chakra coils around a regular eye. The three black tomes in the red iris – _iris, along with the other more complicated words spelled carefully, like he copied it out of a book – _are really more pupils. The tome in the bottom right has chakra sensitive nerves, making it able to let the eye gather the chakra information it would need for the person to repeat any jutsu they see. The bottom left iris/tome is like a regular eye, but with several thousand more chakra nerves then the back of a regular eye, and I believe this allows for the 'time slowing' Captain Kakashi told me about. The last tome has a different chakra I could not find in a book, but I believe this pupil somehow allows for the 'hypnotizing' effects. These three together make it possible for the precognition ...'_

The report was sketchy on a few things, and could have been worded better, but for an eight year old writing about a classified village secret; it was very worrying. The Third motioned to one of the ninja in the room, and he went to go let Iruka and Naruto back in. They came back and sat down in the two empty chairs. "Naruto," Sarutobi said kindly, "how did you find all of this out. Did someone tell you?"

"No, I saw it," Naruto said plainly.

"How do you mean?"

"I asked Kakashi if I could see his eye, because I had to do a report on a Bloodline. He let me look and I saw all the little things in it."

"How did you see 'all the little things?'"

"I just did," Naruto replied, sounding like he was getting bored with all of this.

"Naruto, was it like how you can see people following you that other civilians can't?" asked Kakashi.

"I don't know."

"Captain, what do you mean by that?" Iruka asked, his confusion on his face.

Sarutobi and Kakashi held a glance for a second before the Third nodded. Kakashi thought for a second, ordering his thoughts before he continued. "Naruto has displayed the ability to see through imperfect henge's up to Chunin level, without even knowing it. To him they just don't exist. We cannot explain it yet, although we do believe there may be more things like that he can do."

Iruka looked over at the small boy sitting next to him, not concerned or interested in the slightest. He just looked like a little kid who was thinking of funner places to be. "Why don't you just ask him what else he can do?"

Instead of answering the question, Sarutobi posed another question. "Why doesn't the child who needs glasses say that the world looks blurry to them?"

"Sir?" Iruka asked, not following.

Sarutobi picked his pipe back up from the ashtray occupying the only paper-work free space and began to stuff it with new tobacco. "He does not tell us the world looks differently to him, because he can't. He has never seen the world like we do. To him, this is just how things are." He lit his pipe and puffed a few times, giving Iruka a moment to think over what he had said.

"I think I understand sir," he replied, "but why are you telling me this?"

"Firstly, understand that everything that was just discussed and will be discussed in this room today is under the Third's Law." Iruka nodded quickly. "And secondly, I need you to watch Naruto and see if he ever says something else that might be classified like today, if he does cover it up as best as you can and call the nearest Legacy unit. He would never do it intentionally, but as you've seen he doesn't always know. And lastly Naruto trusts you, so I'm willing to trust you."

"Of course I trust Iruka sensei," Naruto said a little too loudly.

Iruka smiled down at Naruto gently, he was actually very surprised that the boy had managed to stay quiet that long. "Thank you sir," Iruka said, bowing his head to the Third.

"Now Naruto, I would like for you to tell me where you got some of your ideas. Some of the things you talked about in your report were very medically specific," Sarutobi said.

"I got it from a book."

The Hokage laughed deeply. "I gathered that, my boy. What I meant was where you got the book, how you knew what the proper names of things were; things like that."

"Oh," Naruto said, grinning widely. "I took the book from the library when the nice lady that lets me take books was at the desk. Then I just looked through it until I found the parts that looked right."

Iruka's mouth fell open, just about the same time as Kakashi's eye widened to comical proportions. Sarutobi didn't fare much better, when he chocked on the pipe smoke and got Naruto laughing when smoke came out of his nose. Finally, when all three men calmed down and Naruto was again sitting – relatively – still, Kakashi asked a very important question.

"Naruto, you talked in your report about chakra coils and tenketsus, and you even mentioned chakra nerves. How did you see these things."

Naruto frowned, not really understanding what was being asked of him. "I just looked."

No, there was no way in hell he could...

"Can you clear up a few things for me?" Sarutobi asked, and after receiving a nod continued. "Can you see our chakra coils and tenketsus right now?"

Naruto seemed to hesitate. The last time he had answered a question like that he had startled them, he wasn't too sure he should do that again. But Kakashi gave him an eye-smile and a little nod, so he knew it would be okay. "Yes."

Kakashi and Sarutobi shared a meaningful look as Iruka remembered something he read. "Did you mean what you said in your report? About Bloodlines being genetic?"

"That's the word!" exclaimed Naruto "I couldn't think of it before."

Iruka nodded. "Yes, but what about what you said? You stated that you believed bloodline abilities were the results of variations or mutations in chakra coils and tenketsus. You said it was because of this that no one not sharing the blood line would be able to preform the jutsu's. Are you sure?"

"I think so," he said.

"He's correct" Sarutobi cut in. "And I don't need to remind you that everything said here is classified.

-

The three moons were glowing bright in the sky, casting a pale glow over a towering monastery. The building was thousands of years old. It had been build during the reign of Lord Reneigus the third of the seventh age. It's walls were a dark red granite found in only one quarry. Each block weighed upwards of eighty tons and each made their one hundred and thirty kilometer journey by the hands of a hundred thousand slaves, all captured in war. Now the monastery stood proud and strong. It's towers scraping the clouds and it's walls impregnable. In it's time it has never been entered by an invading force, fore it's defenders live their whole lives within. It is their home, thus they fight to the death protecting it.

On one of the tallest battlements a monk is looking out over the plains, watching the invasion force getting closer while he continues to blow the warning horn, it's deep trumpeting echoing into the deepest catacombs of the monastery. Ever since the Lords of the nine races vanished one after another, there has been almost constant war; within and without. Even the great race of the Foxes is in civil war; between the duke appointed by Lord Saharan and the men who would overthrow him.

Far below the huge reinforced doors were taking an awful pounding as the Dog demons launched themselves at it with a mighty ram. Above them dozens of archers rained arrows, as other monks pour boiling oil or dropped rocks. Below, standing ready at the gates in case they fell were another hundred robed monks trained in close combat.

One of them gritted his fangs as the first cracks slit the thick wood. It wouldn't be long now. Hespen was a warrior monk, one of the few trained by Herium himself; the greatest weapon master in the kingdom of the Foxes. He gripped his Naginata tightly. He had never seen a weapon like it before Herium made him work with it. It was mostly a staff-like weapon, except for the wickedly sharp blade mounted on the very tip. He held it tight at his side, the tip of the blade glittering in the torchlight just above his head. The shaft was wrapped in black leather with gold trim, with ornamental rings hooked into the flat of the blade.

The pointed ears on top of his head twitched as he heard another crack split the wood. Behind the gate the grunts and howls of hundreds of Dogs were sharp in the night air. His single tail, it's fur black, matching the rest of his fur swished back and forth in anticipation and a little fear.

The door fell and the Dogs fell upon them screaming and howling, their own blades and fangs flashing in the dark. Hespen's comrades gave him a wide berth as he began to dance, the six foot shaft of his whipping around to cut knees and throats. He twisted the handle and embedded the blade in a skull before kicking off the dead Dog and taking out two more just under their belts.

The Naginata was always a weapon for those that were outnumbered. It's long reach and sharp blade worked best when outnumbered. Hespen spun on the spot before bringing the blade up, opening another enemy crotch to chin. He felt a blade slice into the thin fabric of his simple robe, but he twisted away before it could do more then leave a shallow cut.

He howled, joined a moment later by his brethren. He would be bloody and tired before this night was through, but he would also be adding another twenty three notches to his Naginata.

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The Jade Knight


	2. The Mystery of Friends

One review? Sixty hits? Wow and here i thought the Naruto archive was one of the more active ones. I have never gotten only a single review before. Am i that boring? Tee hee

anyway a few more declarations

**1: **I get bored fairly easily, so i am going to zoom over things you already know, and probably not even touch the things that are over kill. Like have you ever started reading something pretty good.. then they get to the zabuza arc or the chunin exams and because they follow cannon too much they lose interest? I'm going to avoid that. Zabuza is still kool, so he preobably will make it in somehow, and i got a plan for the chunins... just don't expect it to follow the anime or the manga.

**2: **Sakura is in this chapter.. just so you dont close off to soon.. i am not going to make her suddenly become a super-bi&%h when sasuke shows up. I have a plan for him too.

**3: **Knew i forgot something.. NO this is NOT a crossover. i do steal a few characters here and there... but they are just fun little things for you to find. if you have never seen the anime/cartoon/whatever before.... dont worry, if you_ need_ to know it, i will write it.

Think thats it...

c'mon people... review. I want to know what your liking.

-Jade=

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**Pronunciations:**

Sunzi - Sun-(like soon, but with a 'U' sound) - sea

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**Crossing Barriers**

By: The Jade Knight

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**Chapter 2: The Mystery of Friends**

A month had passed since the day the newest of Naruto's abilities had revealed itself, and they still had yet to gain even the slightest insight into it. Things like this happened around Naruto often. It wasn't his fault; he wanted to help them understand, he just couldn't put words to things that were painfully obvious to him. It was like trying to explain the brilliance and power of the sun, resting high in the sky, to a blind man.

"Remember what Iruka said; you've got plenty of power behind your punches, but you have to work on your precision. You're trying to over extend yourself to hit targets that aren't within your reach yet. Fight with your head first, and your muscles last. "

"I'm trying!" growled Naruto as he launched punch after punch, but no matter how fast he fought, Zeus continued to push him further back toward the line with his own combinations. Naruto dug his feet in, tightening the stance that he was taught at the academy and dropped into a sweep-kick, trying to knock Zeus on his ass. But the masked man dropped into a crouch at almost the same time and caught his leg with almost no effort.

"The weakness of a leg sweep is that it is quiet disastrous to _you_ if it is not delivered by surprise. If your enemy has even an instant to react, he will kick as hard as he can here," Zeus said, tapping a place just above his kneecap. "The slightest amount of counter pressure delivered right here will immediately break the knee, crippling you and leaving you open for a killing blow."

Naruto gritted his teeth, filing that away, and pulled his leg free. Throwing himself forward he flipped in mid-air and aimed a punch right for Zeus's mask, hoping to at least knock it aside enough to obscure his vision. He cracked a grin when he felt one of his knuckles glance the mask, but the older Anbu was too fast and vanished in a puff of smoke, and appeared behind him. On the other side of the ring!

"I win!" cried Naruto, pumping both fists into the air.

"I am sorry little one, but it was you who stepped out of the ring first.

Naruto looked down at his feet, and groaned when he noticed that his left sandal was halfway out of the circle that Zeus had carved into the grass with a kunai. The point of the exercise was to better his taijutsu, through sparring Zeus. The idea was that since he was supposed to be learning how to use his strengths more effectively, a five foot circle had been drawn and whoever fell out/was knocked out of it first, lost.

"You have shown an improvement in the last fort night."

"Thanks," Naruto replied grumpily.

"Don't be like that Naruto, it's unbecoming of a young man," said a woman who dropped from the treeline.

"Sunzi!" Naruto called happily, greeting the woman. She was tall, standing an inch or so above Zeus, but still shorter then the Captain of the Legacy unit. Sunzi Jenko had become like a big sister to Naruto over the two years that she had been assigned to the unit. She was a spirited woman, younger then both of her teammates, who kept her midnight black hair cut close, almost into a page-boy cut. She specialized in wind Jutsu's and had made been hand chosen by Kakashi himself almost as soon as she had been made an Anbu.

"Hey munchkin," she said goodheartedly, ruffling his hair when he gave her a hug around the middle. "Has the mean Uchiha been beating you up?"

Hedvige Uchiha paled slightly beneath his mask.

"Yes," Naruto said, grinning wickedly. "He didn't even give me a ramen break."

"Oh my, that is a high offense indeed," she said with a cheeky grin. Wind began to kick up dust around her feet, focusing on her left hand until she seemed to be holding a thin sword made completely out of wind chakra. Naruto cheered her on, thinking how cool his protectors were. Sure there were stronger ninja in the village, but Legacy unit had some of the best.

"Now, Sunzi," soothed Zeus as he eyed the sword carefully, "there's no reason to go over board."

"I might be convince to allow these atrocities to pass, with the right incentive." She vanished in a flurry of speed and took a couple swipes at Zeus, forcing him to bend almost backwards to dodge. When he came up he flicked his mask up with one hand, her mask with the other, and then kissed her.

"Eww," gagged Naruto.

A moment later the two broke apart. "Is that enough incentive?"

"I feel the need to review the offering," she replied. Naruto was now pretending to throw up a lung in the bushes. "And you better stop that or when you get a little girlfriend I will be merciless."

-

She was crying.

Naruto knew what it was like to be bullied; to have what little food you had covered with sand or stomped on. He knew what it felt like to be in the middle of a circle of people who drew pleasure from your pain and if there was anything he could do to stop it, he would.

She was a smart girl, always the first hand in the air in class. She seemed to get good grades and her mother would occasionally pick her up after school. Naruto had not stepped in yet because the little blond girl with the loud voice always seemed to put a stop to that sort of thing. He was wondering where she was today while he made his way over to her spot against the building. Behind him kids screamed and laughed as they enjoyed their break.

"Hello," he said, when he got close enough.

She looked up at him, took a second before she recognized him, and then looked away quickly.

"Doesn't your friend usually stop them from making fun of you?" he asked. He had experience with friends who weren't really friends and wondered if the blond girl was one of those.

"My mother says I'm not supposed to talk to you," she said, glancing into his eyes again before focusing back at a spot on the ground. Her hands tightened on the little pink lunch bag in one hand and the crushed sandy sandwich and broken juice box in the other.

"What about sharing my lunch," he asked, holding up one of his two sandwiches. He also had an apple, a little bag of a half dozen sweets and a can of juice in his paper bag. Sunzi had taken over making his lunches a few weeks ago and she always put in a little more then he could eat, telling him to try to share.

"I'm not supposed to sit near you either."

Naruto thought for a second, looking down at his own lunch bag. "What about picking up something I left behind?"

The girl looked up at him for a long time, thinking over everything he mother had ever said about this boy. He didn't seem dangerous or like a 'hoodlum', whatever that was. "I don't think so."

Naruto smiled widely before crouching down and – making sure it was still sealed in it's little bag – put the sandwich carefully on the ground, and then placed the juice box next to it. He looked up at her and saw that she was leaning as far forward as she could while not leaving her place. She looked at him curiously, wondering why he was doing that. Only Ino shared her lunch with her.

Thinking for a moment, he reach back into his little brown bag and put half of the sweets on the sandwich, earning an excited squeak. Once finished he smiled at her again before turning around and walking away, making sure not to look back. "My name is Sakura."

Naruto stopped. His breath came short, might this girl become his first friend outside the unit? "I'm Naruto." When he got no response he chanced a look back, and found no sight of the girl or the food.

"She's pretty," said a phantom voice from overhead.

"Su-nzi," Naruto whined loudly in protest.

The next day Naruto found out Ino was out sick with the flu. Sakura was forbidden to talk to him or sit next to him by her mother, but she never said anything about sitting in the next row, or passing notes.

-

It was a week later and Naruto was traveling for the first time in his life. The Hokage had assigned Kakashi to deliver the list of Genin entering the Chunin exams being held in Suna this year. Normally this would only be a C rank mission, but he thought that Naruto deserved a little time outside. Plus it gave the rest of Legacy unit time to get their newest fourth member up to speed.

The seven day trip went smoothly, if a little slowly – Naruto felt like he needed to investigate everything, and Kakashi couldn't turn him down very often. There was no real danger on a mission like this other then a random mugger making a bad decision. The names of those entering the Chunin exams were public domain, the scroll of entrants was more of a tradition then even a formality. Kakashi delivered his package, then decided to take the Kazakage up on his offer of spending the day enjoying the city.

It would do Naruto wonders to just walk around as just another face in the crowd.

It was just approaching evening when they came across a playground – having already hit every ramen stand in the city – Naruto messed around on the swings for a while. The children looked at him with curiosity rather then distaste or fear, and although he wanted to try to join a game, he wasn't sure how.

Then one of the children screamed.

Naruto looked up and saw a ball drifting down off of a roof, suspended on a layer of sand. He came over to find out who was doing it, when all the children ran away. He was just thinking that they were running from him again when he noticed a boy holding the ball he had seen. He was a small one, and it looked like he hadn't slept in a while.

Had he done the trick?

"Don't go!" pleaded the boy as everyone ran.

Naruto didn't notice the sand rearing up to grab the one child trailing behind the others, nor did he notice the sand fall back to the ground when he spoke. "That was awesome! How did you get the ball? Was it a jutsu? Can you teach me? Please!"

Gaara turned, startled, and considered the first person to ever see his sand move and not be afraid – aside from Yashamaru. He was certainly a strange boy. He had bright blond hair almost exactly like his older brother, and the widest grin the boy had ever seen. As the moment Gaara took to look over the stranger grew longer, Naruto's smile slowly faded.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I guess your parents will get mad if you talk to me too."

Now Gaara was very confused. Didn't this stranger know? Everyone else did. The boy was just returning to his swing when Gaara spoke up, some part of him hoping. "It's me."

"Nani?" questioned Naruto.

"It's usually me the kids don't want to play with. Their parents tell then to stay away or I might kill them."

Naruto frowned a little. "Would you kill them?"

"I don't want to," Gaara said quickly yet cautiously. This boy might be trying to trick him. "It's the demon, sometimes it does things that I don't want it to."

"Oh-h," Naruto said slowly. "Is the demon in you head? Like, do you talk to a doctor about it?"

"No, it is real," Gaara replied, not insulted at all. There was a very strange feeling growing inside him. This boy hadn't run yet ... maybe he won't. "It was put inside me when I was still inside my mother. She died when I was born. Ever since then it had controlled the sand around me."

"Really?" Naruto said slowly.

"My name is Gaara."

"Hello Gaara," Naruto said slowly, in amazement. He looked around, and spotted Kakashi on the other side of the park reading his book. No, Gaara couldn't be. "Could you tell me a little more about the demon inside you?"

-

"Gaara, it's time to come home!" shouted Tamari. She knew her brother had said he wanted to go to the park again today. He said he wanted to try to make a friend again. Tamari loved her little brother, but there were times when she felt sorry for him.

And there were many times when she feared for her life around him.

Her uncle Yashamaru had asked her to go get her brother and bring him home, because he had some important business to get done. So here she was, walking across a park looking for her brother, when she saw a sight that made her blood run cold.

At first glance it had looked like her brother might have made a friend. She was happy to see him talking with a little blond boy. But then she noticed that he was clutching his hand, and looking down in horror as a few drops of blood fell. The sand around his feet started to stir, and a cold shudder ran down Tamari's back. She was sure she was just about to see that little boy die.

She had planned to stay silent, and maybe slip away before the sands found her too, but another part of her called out before she could. "Gaara, don't hurt him!" She slapped both of her hands over her mouth.

'_Oh kami, he's gunna kill me too now!_' she thought panicky.

"I won't," Gaara said, and then he looked back down at his hand with something between wonder and horror. Was this pain? He had never seen his own blood before. He knew the sand had killed the people who had hit him before, but it made no move this time and he was glad.

"Kakashi!" the blond boy called, "do you have any bandages?"

Tamari finally managed to stagger her way forward once she was sure she wasn't going to die. That was the Copy-nin from Konoha digging around in his jacket for a bandage for her brother's first cut.

"Here!" the blond said proudly, passing Gaara a small bandage. Gaara took the little white packet and looked at it strangely, like it was something alien. "Haven't you ever put on a band-aid before?"

"No."

"Really?" he asked amazed before taking the bandage back and opening it. Then he reached out and Tamari had her second heart attack of the day. The blond boy actually _touched_ her brother. He put a band-aid on Gaara's finger and became the first person to have ever touched him. Gaara stared at his hand, cataloging the other new feeling.

He curled his finger around the bandage and smiled a faint smile. "Thank you."

"Yeah," said the blond, "it was my fault you were hurt."

"Gaara," Tamari called weakly.

"Hello Tamari," he said in his usual cool manner. She hadn't noticed it until right then, but her brother spoke to this new boy with a tone she had never heard before; almost friendly.

"Hi!" called the blond, with a wave, "I'm Naruto!"

"Gaara, why didn't your sand attack Naruto?" The Copy-nin seemed a little more alert when she said that, but what surprised her was the lack of reaction on Naruto's part.

Gaara looked at Naruto, and then back to her. "We were just playing ninja's." Naruto flashed a toothy grin. "I knew he didn't mean to hurt me."

"How did you know that?"

Gaara considered Tamari for a moment. "Because he's like me."

It wasn't until years later that Tamari understood that statement.

-

The duke of the Foxes; charged with the protection of the throne and kingdom until the Lord, may he live forever, made his gallant return looked around the room in disgust. Old fools. Fossils who's brains had decayed with their bodies. A dozen gray haired men, one for each clan, sat around the war map in their plush chairs while their duke stood strong and commanding. if anyone else tried to sit in his presence they could be thrown in the jails for a month, but he needed their years of experience fighting the eight races. Too bad they knew that too.

His name was Graymere, and he had held the fate of the Fox Realm for eight years already. He sighed and let the old idiot argue about the ninth army. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead with a scarred hand. He was of the Crimson Clan, like the Lord himself, may he live forever. His glossy red coat glowed in the light of a hundred candles set up around the room, and his single tail swished in agitation.

The old man representing the Browns decided to move onto a new topic that they could all yell about. "A report said that the Dogs recently made an attempt to take the Monastery of Lord Saharan, may he live forever, this means that they are getting desperate. Their Lord has been missing for nearly a century now and their duke is dead. There are reports of a new Dog rising up and calling himself a Lord, but we can take this attack as a sign that there is no real head to their military. They are weakened, now would be the best time to take their Territory!"

"How many were there in their attack force?" Graymere asked.

"Body count is two hundred and forty, total approximations are at three hundred."

"They got three claws of warriors not only across our borders, but a hundred and fifty kilometers into our own Territory, and you think they are weak?" said a voice from the door. A man walked in through the door, both of the guards snapping to attention and not even trying to bar his approach.

Graymere let a smile bite at the edges of his lip when he saw his friend and head adviser walk in. Finally someone with a little brains that can shove a few shedding feet into mouths.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" shouted the leader of the Blacks.

"Ahh, the Blacks have appointed a new representative. Very good choice, especially since the last one was trying to push through war plans using new recruits as bait and strategic scarifies."

"You have no reason to be in this room!" the Black shouted. "You are a Silver, but you are most definitely not the representative. You trot in here, looking to make us out to be cubs in matters of state. You have no idea who you are dealing with! I am a very influential man and I could have you destroyed."

"Oh my, Greymere, you might want to keep an eye on this one. He doesn't sound like an improvement over the last."

"You dare address the duke by his name!" shouted the Black triumphantly. "You have over stepped yourself. Guards! Take this man away."

"I was wondering why you looked so haggard when I walked in, but I think i have discovered the reason. You have my pity old friend."

"Frok of the Blacks, are you attempting to throw my head adviser from the war room?" asked the duke dangerously. The black's ears fell and his mouth hung open. He tried to stutter out his apologies, but the new Silver just waved it off and went to stand beside his seat, waiting for the duke to seat himself.

He was about twenty one hundred years old and had lived a very influential life. Nearly a thousand years ago, back before the nine races were chosen to govern the demon realm, back even before the time when there was a single king chosen by a fighting tournament, he fought beside a great man who saved the demon realm from destroying itself. He still visited that man and his descendants now and again, when ever he made a trip into either the human realm or the realm of the dead.

"Kurama, it is good to have you with us this day," said the representative of the Silvers.

The silver fox nodded his head, his intelligent eyes looking over the maps before him. "I have come up with several strategies that may hold back further invasion from the Dogs."

"Are they really becoming a threat again?" asked the Gray.

"Judging from the intelligence we have been able to gather recently there is a ninety eight point seven percent chance that there is a new person seated in the position of duke of the Dogs. A new lord of full power has only a point one two chance of existing, so we can set that aside for now. That being said I would highly recommend _against_ attacking the Dog realm until we get more information on how this new duke thinks. To attack without knowing the enemy is the surest course to defeat."

"Taken under advisement, any opposing opinions?" asked Graymere. No hands raised. "Course of action approved; continue."

"The Tortoises are the closest, but their defenses are far beyond our capabilities at the moment. Because the reverse can be said about the offense we are at a stalemate and any attempt to break that stalemate with force at this point in time would be very ill-advised. The Cats are the next closest, and intelligence states that their eastern boarder is weak. Their seventh army, caring three full tails of troops of varying types has contracted a form or the necrosis disease and is greatly weakened. According to a spy reinforcements are not set for a further six weeks leaving us a prime opening."

"Very good," said Graymere. "I assume you have some ideas?"

"I do," Kurama said, signaling to an assistant waiting just outside in the hall. She came in under a stack of scroll and began to hand them out as Kurama began explaining his ideas. Three hours later they were just going over the last of the 'broad strokes', so to speak, and were just about to break for the day to begin initial preparations when a startling discovery was made.

The aged map carved into the stone of the table in the war room was very old, and it had been placed under many enchantments by the past Lords themselves, may they be avenged, and it was designed to always show the interactions between the nine races. Recently more and more of the map had re-written itself with red ink, signaling all out war. Orange meant 'no measures taken on either side for a time' – usually at least fifty years – peace treaties may be considered. A few places are still a yellow, meaning a shaky truce, but it has been a long time since anyone has seen the gray of neutrality.

And with the Dogs!

But what froze everyone in the places was not just because of the change, or woth whom, but the implications of how. The only way to change the map in the manner of hostilities was for an invasion force to go into a formerly orange or lighter territory. Only time can bring the situations down to the yellow of truce. And the only way to downgrade the situation past yellow was for the Lords themselves, may they live forever, to come to an agreement.

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**The Jade Knight**

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